I was a
wet-behind-the-ears middle schooler when Donald Keutzer, my science teacher,
took me out on my first real herping trip. On a wooded hillside, I found a
number of 'firsts' including a handful of Prairie Ringnecks. It was a day
I've never forgotten. All these years later I still have an
appreciation for Diadophis.

Pictured are two Prairie Ringnecks from Kansas. Rick Milas took the
bottom photo that shows the beautiful venter of this species. In the middle
of a Kansas spring, one could easily find hundreds of Ringnecks in a single
day.